Welcome to the lands of swords and sorcery, where people live and die by the sword and only the bravest of souls stand between the common folk and the forces of darkness. Join me as I wander different planes and hear the stories of their greatest defenders and the sagas of their worthiest warriors.
This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the book.
That said, on to the review!
Dragonlord of Mystara marks the beginning of The Dragonlord Chronicles, set in TSR's world of Mystara. It has all the earmarks of an excellent "hidden king" kind of novel, along with all the weapons and wizardry you could want, but it has something else to endear it to readers. Rather than having Thelvyn's abilities thrown in our faces, we get to discover them along with Thelvyn. In essence we grow up and mature with our young, uncertain hero as he tries to master the skills and abilities that lie latent within him. We watch as he meets his future traveling companions for the first time. We wince as he suffers his first horseback rides. We gasp in startled amazement with him as he first masters magic spells and manifests the beginnings of his clerical powers. We don't simply know that he's going to be a wizard, a warrior, and a cleric. Oh, no. We get to discover it with him, granting a sort of immediacy that you wouldn't necessarily expect from "sword and sorcery" books.
Do you know, you don't even get to really see a dragon up close until well into the book. Sure, there's the initial scene where Thelvyn's mother is actually fleeing from them, but other than that the adventurers don't meet up with any dragon--not a one--until they've traversed nearly half the world (and half the book) in search of artifacts that will help them at least subdue (not kill) a dragon. What's more, you don't want to encounter the dragons. You're having too much fun tagging along with Sir George, Thelvyn, and the others as they have their different adventures en route to the impending conflict. To my mind this is very good writing, indeed.
Sadly, I'd never heard of Mr. Gunnarsson until I discovered TSR's Mystara books, but if Dragonlord of Mystara is any example of his writing, I'm sure I'd want to! The writing is masterful and evocative without becoming to fomulaic. In fact, as much as I like TSR's novels, this seems more like something done beyond its auspices! You have got to read this!
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